Uber Near Miss - SAFETY REMINDER!!
A young woman (21) is out having some fun in downtown Las Vegas. She's with two other girl friends. They do what twenty-somethings often do and have a few too many drinks. It's time to end their night, so they do the responsible thing and grab their phones and send for an Uber. Two girls live together, so they hop in the one car and the last girl (a friend of one of my employees) stands on the crowded and safe street waiting for her car.
Car pulls up, the man says "I'm your Uber driver", so she smiles and hops in the backseat. She confirms her drop off address and off they go.
A few minutes later the booze hits her pretty badly and she thinks she's going to be sick. She asks the driver to please pull over.
He keeps driving...
"Please, I'm going to be sick all over your car, please pull over"
"It's ok, I have a bag back there, that's what it's for. Go ahead"
He takes an exit she doesn't recognize. She panics and says she'll call the cops if he doesn't pull over and let her have some fresh air. So he gives in and pulls into a gas station. He tries to get out of the car and follow her into the gas station. She somehow convinces him otherwise and goes into the store to use the restroom.
When she's done she says to the store clerk that she's not comfortable getting back in the car. "Something is creepy". Can you please tell him to go ahead without me and I'll call another driver to pick me up. The clerk is alarmed, says absolutely, and goes to tell the Uber driver to go ahead and call it done.
"No, it's OK, I'll wait for her"
"No sir, she doesn't want to get back in the car. Please leave"
"I only get paid if I deliver her to her keyed in destination. I'll wait"
"Leave or I call the police"
He immediately speeds off...
The fear quickly sobers her up and she realizes she's at a gas station in Boulder City, NV. That is 45 minutes in the opposite direction of her home and where she ordered the Uber to deliver her. She digs down in the bottom of her purse, finds her phone, and sees several text messages and alerts from the Uber app.
"Hello, this is your Uber driver. I can't seem to find you"
"Please call me with your exact location"
And several other similar messages.
The man she was in the car with wasn't even an Uber driver!
There's no telling what his intentions were. But we can only assume they weren't honest or well-intended. He saw a lone woman standing in a crowded area. A commonly known Uber pick up space in a popular night life spot. He probably noticed she was under the influence, and he went for it. She was very, VERY lucky that the threat of calling the police scared him off.
Now this isn't a reflection on Uber itself. They do take precautions to ensure the safety of their riders. However, after one-too-many cocktails, how many of us are careless and overly trusting?
From the Uber official website:
Safe pickups
The Uber app automatically finds your location to provide door-to-door service. That means you stay safe and comfortable wherever you are until your driver arrives.
Open to everyone, everywhere
All ride requests are blindly matched with the closest available driver. So there is no discrimination based on race, gender, or destination.
Driver profiles
When you’re matched with a driver, you’ll see their name, license plate number, photo, and rating—so you know who’s picking you up ahead of time. And even after the trip, you’re able to contact your driver if you left something behind.
Click here for some suggestions from ABC news on how to better ensure you're safety and best utilize the safety features of Uber.
It's a great service, and I use it often. But like anything, there are vultures out there waiting to take advantage.
This is really frightening. If only the gas station attendant had called the police while the guy was there! An alternative to Uber is another service called SAFR (pronounced: safer) which is oriented towards women! Read about them and then download their mobile app to see if they are in your area!
Great, thank you!!!
Scary stuff, the young lady was very lucky on this occasion. A timely reminder to double check someone is who they say they are before trusting them.
#thealliance
Yes. There is some ownership and responsibility of the rider. She didn’t check to make sure the car matched what the app said it’d be. But frightening nonetheless.
Terrifying!
Wow! Scary! Thank you for sharing this story. I've not used Uber yet, but I'll keep this in mind if and when I do.
Good reminder (y)
A great cautionary tale. I remember seeing a TV episode, I forget which show, but there was a serial killer posing as a driver for some fictitious driving company. It's scary to realize it really could happen.
After hearing that i started to wonder how often that happens. I may research it later.
gripped in the gut. oh boy, that's lucky